1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to the field of video communication, and in particular to the time compression of digital frames of time varying images.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The prior apparatus and methodology used for the transmission of video or time varying images was typically based on a scheme in which information of pixel intensity values in each frame was transmitted. In some prior art approaches, only temporal or spatial changes in the information are transmitted, namely the boundaries or movement of patterns. While the transmission of information changes from frame to frame results in some data compression, the amount of compression is nevertheless limited by the restriction that the data changes are transmitted on a pixel-by-pixel basis. For a lossless data transmission, pixel-by-pixel information may be necessary, but in applications where loss of some data may be acceptable, such as in televideo conferencing as opposed to transmission of broadcast quality images, transmission of information on an other than pixel basis may be acceptable.
Therefore, what is needed is a method and apparatus wherein time varying image data compression can be maximized or optimized without tracking each pixel in the image.